Venezuela anger at CIA agent decision

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Venezuela has expressed condemnation and anger at a decision of a judge to dismiss immigration charges faced in the US by Luis Posada Carriles. Notorious Posada Carriles - 79-year-old exiled anti-Castro militant and former CIA agent- has been involved in various terrorist acts. He is accused of blowing up of a Cuban airliner which killed seventy-three people in 1976. He was jailed in Venezuela but escaped from it dressed as a priest in 1985.

In 1997, Posada Carriles targeted Cuban hotels where an Italian tourist was killed. Furthermore, documents of National Security Archive have revealed he was involved in terrorist attacks against a British West Indian Airways office in Barbados and the Guyanese Embassy in Trinidad. There is plenty evidence of his participation in the Iran-contras affair.

In 2000, Posada Carriles was accused of attempting assassination of Fidel Castro during a regional summit in Panama. After spending four years in jail, he was released in Panama and illegally entered US. On various occasions, the Venezuelan government has tried to extradite Posada Carriles from the US. Such request has not been successful as yet.

Posada Carriles had worked as chief of operations of the Venezuelan intelligence (DISIP) to counter guerrilla movements supported by Cuba. In 1974 he was dismissed by the Venezuelan authorities and found a private detective agency in Caracas.

PS: According to Scoop, the White House looks for a country willing to receive Posada to spare him from extradition to Cuba or Venezuela or try him in the US. Unconfirmed information state that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales had expressed to Congress his dissatisfaction with Posada´s release.

Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_6637000/6637513.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/6639775.stm

http://www.globovision.com/news.php?nid=55385